Learners’ perspectives on Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article examines the views of male and female learners regarding how Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education is taught at their schools. Learners in the study were selected from five former ‘Black’ schools in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Focus groups were used to identify what learners could recall about their LO sexuality education classes. The strong trend in the data speaks to how LO sexuality education implies a gendered, heteronormative and moralistic approach to youth sexuality which silences and negates same sex relationships and girls’ accounts of sexuality. Although LO sexuality curricula are, as crafted on paper, often sophisticated learning programmes, participants point to a disjuncture between the official LO sexuality education curriculum and how LO sexuality education is taught in the studied schools. The paper concludes with some specific recommendations for teachers to promote a non-judgemental approach to sexuality education that challenges heteronormativity and other gendered injustices as part of the teaching of LO sexuality education.     

美国青少年性教育模式研究

美国是较早进行性教育的国家之一,其多样的模式和丰富的经验使其受到各国研究者的关注。文章通过对美国两大主要青少年性教育模式的发展历程和现状、价值体系、教育目标、课程内容四大方面的比较研究,以期为我国青少年性教育提供借鉴。     

Teacher education for a democratic society in England and South Africa

This paper considers the role of teacher education in England and South Africa in relation to education for democratic citizenship. It argues that teacher education should play a positive role in this respect but there has often been a contradiction between the structures and practices of teacher education and democratic forms of education. The paper analyses teacher education policy in both countries in the light of these arguments. It then goes on to discuss the practice of teacher education in both countries in relation to existing literature and evidence and interviews with student teachers at two universities in England and two in South Africa.     

南非教师教育政策的变革及其启示

20世纪90年代以来,在南非社会民主化进程中,南非教师教育发生了急剧而复杂的变革,教师教育政策相继出台,但由于政府政策与现实相脱离,很多政策实施效果不佳,给教师造成负担.为协调现有各项政策措施,解决南非教师短缺和教师培训落后等问题,南非政府制定了<南非教师教育和教师发展国家政策框架>.本文分析了南非教师教育政策的变革,其中有很多值得我们借鉴和思考的经验.     

南非教师教育的质量保障制度

为了保障教师教育的质量,南非构建了从教师教育机构审查、教学项目认证、教师资格认证到教师专业发展的一体化质量保障体系,并为此成立了高等教育质量委员会、教育从业者委员会和行业教育培训局等质量保障机构。无论在机构审查标准、教学项目认证标准、教师资格认证标准、教师专业发展系统,还是教师专业能力描述、教师职业规范要求,教师专业发展内涵上都颇具特色,为教师教育质量保障制度体系的构建提供了有益的国际经验。     

Teachers' attitudes towards adolescent sexuality and life skills education in rural South Africa

This study investigated the attitudes of 43 teachers and school administrators towards sex education, young people's sexuality and their communities in 19 secondary schools in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and how these attitudes affect school-based HIV prevention and sex education. In interviews, teachers expressed judgemental attitudes towards young people's sexuality and pregnant students, and focused on girls' perceived irresponsible behaviour instead of strategies to minimise HIV risk. Despite general awareness of the HIV epidemic, few teachers perceived it as an immediate threat, and teachers' own HIV risk was infrequently acknowledged. Teachers perceived themselves to have higher personal standards and moral authority than members of the communities and schools they served. Male administrators' authority to determine school policies and teachers' attitudes towards sexuality fundamentally affect the content and delivery of school-based sexuality education and HIV prevention activities. Opportunities to create a supportive educational environment for students and for female teachers are frequently missed. Improving teachers' efficacy to deliver impartial, non-judgemental and accurate information about sex and HIV is essential, as are efforts to acknowledge and address their own HIV risks.     

南非教师教育的历史演进与改革发展

南非教师教育制度根植于南非的种族隔离制度。南非教师教育从萌芽发端、逐渐发展乃至日益完善走过了漫长的历程，尤其是南非恢复民主制度以来，南非政府就把教师教育工作的重点放在教育政策体制的改进与完善上，其间的变化与革新无不推动着南非教师教育的发展。新政府不仅采取了多种有力的措施为南非教师教育的改革和实践保驾护航，而且陆续颁布了各种政策法令，这对现代南非教师教育体系的发展具有深远而重要的影响。     

南非教师教育制度的重建:进展与成效

民主新南非的教育体系是在种族隔离教育遗产的基础上通过全方位的变革建立起来的。南非教师教育制度的重建是一个漫长、复杂的过程。通过调整管理体制、颁布教师教育标准、优化院校结构、出台国家政策框架等举措,南非已建构起一个以成果和能力为本位的、具有民主治理特质的、一体化、开放式的教师教育与发展体系。国家教师教育与发展政策框架的实施虽然取得了一些成效,但也面临多方面的不确定性和挑战。     

Sexuality education in South Africa: Three essential questions

Sex education is the cornerstone on which most HIV/AIDS prevention programmes rest and since the adoption of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), has become a compulsory part of the South African school curriculum through the Life Orientation learning area. However, while much focus has been on providing young people with accurate and frank information about safe sex, this paper questions whether school-based programmes sufficiently support the needs of young people. This paper is based on a desk-review of the literature on sex and sexuality education and examines it in relation to the South African educational context and policies. It poses three questions: (a) what do youth need from sexuality education? (b) Is school an appropriate environment for sex education? (c) If so, what can be said about the content of sex education as well as pedagogy surrounding it? Through reviewing the literature this paper critically engages with education on sex and sexuality in South Africa and will argue that in order to effectively meet the needs of youth, the content of sexual health programmes needs to span the whole spectrum of discourses, from disease to desire. Within this spectrum, youth should be constructed as “knowers” as opposed to innocent in relation to sex. How youth are taught as well as how their own knowledge and experience is positioned in the classroom is as important as content in ensuring that youth avoid negative sexual health outcomes.     

South African contributions to LGBTI education issues

ABSTRACT

South Africa stands out in the African region for its protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights. This article examines South Africa’s contributions to local policy for LGBTIs and to work on LGBTI issues in education policy and education rights progress internationally. It also considers broader South African contributions to the theorisation of gender and sexuality. Data derive from an analysis of 102 interviews with key informants participating in high-level global networking for LGBTI students’ rights, and documentary analysis showing how stakeholders characterise South African contributions to transnational LGBTI education work. Informants identified how such contributions have a strong human rights emphasis, furthering post-colonial resistance to simplistic gender and sexuality classification schema imposed via imperial colonising dynamics. While South African work in this area has also promoted and facilitated research, it has at times been limited by ambivalence from its leadership. The nation’s early adoption of constitutional rights, relationship rights and educational equity provisions as acts of decolonisation contribute valuable African LGBTI work examples to the region. Their success encourages further funding for South-South transnational LGBTI education work.     

南非高校合并:成效与经验

自20世纪90年代中期以来的南非高校合并,是摆脱了种族隔离制度的新南非改造其整个高等教育体系最重要的手段,在很大程度上改变了南非高等教育的面貌。南非的高校合并是在政府的主导下进行的,具有很强的计划性。充分调研,反复论证;政府推动,因势利导;就近归并,稳定重点;形式明确,深度融合,是南非高校合并获得成功的基本经验。     

南非教师教育新政策述评——构建平等与多元的师资培训体系

1994年以来,为应对教师数量的急剧增多,提升师资培训的质量与效益,南非政府颁布了多项教师教育新政策。这些新政策的颁布不仅解决了南非教师教育的多样化需求,同时建立了一个严格的管理和规范教师教育的体系。这是南非教育史上首次形成平等、多元、反种族隔离的师资培训新政策。     

当代美国青少年性教育的两大模式探析

20世纪后半叶,青少年性教育引起了世界各国的普遍关注。美国是青少年性教育的先行国家之一,它的性教育模式多样纷呈,其中最具代表性的当属综合性性教育模式和唯禁欲性教育模式。本文将回顾这两大性教育模式的发展历程,通过比较两者的性教育目标、性教育内容以及各自的性教育价值取向等,以分析两者背后所隐藏的不同的价值观体系,以期为我国方兴未艾的青少年性教育提供参考。     

Educational paradigms and engineering educators in South Africa

In this response to Waghid (2000) the authorsquestion the validity of conclusions reachedfrom an examination of the proceedings of anengineering education conference in SouthAfrica. The authors argue that these papersdo not represent the views of engineeringeducators in general. Furthermore they querythe way in which Waghid uses reference toteaching methods in these papers to deduce thetheoretical perspective of the presenters. Itis suggested that the views of the educatorsinvolved in this conference and others like itin South Africa, can be characterised asfalling within a broad interpretivist(constructivist) perspective. Finally, theauthors agree that an engagement with acritical perspective would contributesignificantly to the transformation of theculture of engineering education in SouthAfrica.     

The transformation of school-based sex education policy in the context of AIDS in Ireland

While AIDS was neither the initial nor the sole factor, it had a profound impact on the development of school-based sex education policy and practice in 1980s Ireland. Attempts to introduce a national programme of sex education on foot of increasing rates of crisis pregnancy pre-date the AIDS era, but these efforts had been vociferously opposed by conservative Catholic interests. The fear generated by AIDS prompted a shift in what political theorist, John Kingdon terms, the 'national mood' that? coupled with the singular determination of then Minister for Education, Mary O’Rourke, who faced down intense opposition from conservative groups and the Catholic Bishops, created the conditions needed to introduce the AIDS Education Resource – a forerunner to the Relationships and Sexuality Education programme – in post-primary schools throughout Ireland in October 1990.     

What does the teaching and learning of sexuality education in South African schools reveal about counter-normative sexualities?

ABSTRACT

Using the interlocking concepts of power, knowledge and discourse, this article focuses on how counter normative sexualities are discursively constructed in the sexuality education classroom and with what effects. Drawing on in-depth interviews with teachers and classroom observation, the evidence highlights the presence of specific discourses about the teaching and learning of sexuality diversity. First, while many teachers argued for the inclusion of counter-normative sexualities, in their teaching and responses they privileged heterosexuality as legitimate and natural and same-sex sexualities as deviant and Other. Second, teachers’ discourses construct queer youth not only as innocent and childlike but also as hypersexual and rebellious – requiring discipline and intervention. These constructions link closely to discourses of pity and tolerance, or blame when counter-normative sexualities were expressed. Finally, despite heterosexuality being privileged in the classroom, teachers’ and pupils’ questions about gender and sexuality diversity suggest the need for a more defined and inclusive curriculum sexuality education curriculum. Findings justify concern about how counter-normative sexualities are addressed in the sexuality education classroom and advocate for improvement in teaching and learning about counter-normative sexualities in South African secondary education.     

The role of teachers in sex education and the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Research was undertaken to assess the role of primary school teachers with regard to the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Structured and semi‐structured questionnaires were responded to by 210 teachers drawn from primary schools in Eastern Nigeria (with pupils aged 6–15 years). These were supplemented by focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The findings show that the teachers have a reasonably high knowledge of the modes of HIV transmission, the behavioural risk factors and modes of prevention. The teachers, however, are reluctant to teach this because of socio‐cultural and religious factors, lack of teacher training in delivery of sex education as well as poor motivation. The motivation and participation of primary school teachers in the prevention of HIV in Nigeria are very low. This calls for serious and urgent policy intervention to remedy the situation and increase the role of primary school teachers in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.     

Designing an effective sexuality education curriculum for schools: lessons gleaned from the South(ern) African literature

Sexuality education forms part of the national school curricula of most sub-Saharan African countries, yet risk-related sexual behaviour among young people continues to fuel the HIV pandemic in this part of the world. One of the arguments put forward to explain why sexuality education seems to have had little impact on sexual risk-taking is that existing curricula have neglected to take into account the complexity of the social, cultural and gender norms that influence the behaviour of school-going young people in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past few years, the Department of Basic Education in South Africa has recognised the need to provide guidance to teachers on the content, pedagogical processes and messages that are relevant to their specific context. This paper critically reflects on findings from a literature-based study conducted to identify the cognitive and social factors influencing the behaviour of school-going young people in South Africa and the risk and protective factors that might be particular to their circumstances. The findings provide helpful guidelines about the development, content and implementation of sexuality education curricula more likely to be relevant in contexts of serious poverty and disadvantage. Although based on the South African literature, the findings may also offer useful lessons for curriculum designers in other developing countries.     

Private higher education in Africa: The case of Monash South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions.

In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: ? Widening access to higher education in the continent

? Improving the quality of education

? Improving student experience

? Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees

However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: ? Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa

? Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries.

In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above.

Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.     

Use of sexuality-focused entertainment media in sex education

The literature on the impact of entertainment media on sex education is typically pathology-focused, unclear regarding the effects of such usage, and void of dialogue between those who actually work in the areas of sexuality education and entertainment. To address this gap, this paper is the product of joint authorship between media figures from varied sexually-focused programming fields and academics who teach and conduct research in the areas of sexuality and relational health. The authors focus on the role that various forms of entertainment media play in educating members of the public and college classrooms in the areas of sex and sexuality. Additionally, examples of the inclusion of entertainment media in educational contexts are discussed.